@Somber You missed the part where Britain sold opium to the Chinese to buy back the silver which they then gave to the Chinese for more tea, which they bought back with opium and so on. The whole opium wars thing started after the Chinese found out what they were doing and got almighty pissed.
In the end the British did what they probably should have done in the first place, they smuggled the plant out of China and grew it on what was then their own territory (India).
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@Somber You missed the part where Britain sold opium to the Chinese to buy back the silver which they then gave to the Chinese for more tea, which they bought back with opium and so on. The whole opium wars thing started after the Chinese found out what they were doing and got almighty pissed.
In the end the British did what they probably should have done in the first place, they smuggled the plant out of China and grew it on what was then their own territory (India).